Domestic Adventures
by Deberzer
Summary: Random one shots that don't fit into my other collections.
1. Tattoo

Thanks a lot again to TeenyTinyIrishPerson for beta reading!

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Takes place after Chapter 3 of Sun and Moon.

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OTP Prompt:

"Imagine your OTP laying in bed together, and Person A says they want to get a tattoo with Person B's name. Person B refuses because it's too tacky/they might break up and person A would regret later/etc. Instead Person B grabs a sharpie and starts to draw on Person A's lower back/upper thighs/arms 'property of Person B' "

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I was laying awake once again, staring at the ceiling. The room was faintly illuminated by the orange city light from the cafés and restaurants that were alive well into the night. Mingled noises of the hustle outside seeped in through the window left ajar. I looked at the alarm clock on my desk. 1:21 AM. The doctor had said I needed physical rest and adequate night-time sleep to recover from that bloody concussion. Easier said than done when falling asleep was a difficult task in itself. I turned my head and looked down at Sam. Her head was resting on my shoulder, an arm wrapped around my middle.

When I couldn't fall asleep after 30 minutes I thought; I should get up, do something relaxing and try again. It's what Sam had said after a google session on her phone, when I'd accidentally woken her in a restless night. Who would have thought that the outgoing party girl would end up being the more attentive one of us? I was so glad that she was there with me, that she never gave up on me. I gave in to the sudden urge to show my appreciation and leant down to plant a gentle kiss on her head, even though I knew she wouldn't notice it. At least one of us could sleep. How long had I been lying awake now? Over an hour, I guessed. I knew I needed sleep, I needed rest. I needed to recover for what was ahead of me- ahead of us. For what Sam had talked me into. It wasn't that I didn't want to go. I was actually somewhat excited to go on a trip again, and to follow up on clues in my father's notebook. But I was worried. Very worried. How could I not be after what had happened the last time I'd gone on an adventure? I didn't know what was ahead of us, and that scared the hell out of me. I needed to be awake and alert. I needed rest.

All right, Sam, I'll try it your way.

I slowly removed her arm from my waist and gently lay her head down onto the pillow. I stood up and glanced at Sam, making sure I hadn't woken her. I carefully rearranged the duvet. Instinctively she grabbed a handful of the material and pulled it up under her chin. She looked so cute, it made me smile. I reached out and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. Sam would be furious if she knew I'd become touchy-feely when she wasn't awake to appreciate it.

Not wanting to risk interrupting her sleep, I turned away. Looking out of the window, it felt like half of London couldn't sleep either.

All right. Relaxing... Couldn't be so hard, could it? My eyes wandered into every corner of my room, hoping to fall onto something that could help me. I felt strangely lost in my own home. Relaxing activities wasn't anything that I'd ever felt the need to look into. Feeling awkward standing around doing nothing, I sat down into the chair at my desk. More out of habit than actually hoping it would do any good, I booted up my laptop. I watched the screen come to life and then stared at the desktop. Maybe I should give music a try, I thought, and opened up YouTube in the browser. Searching for relaxing music revealed a long list of three hour videos. Well, I was hoping it wouldn't take that long. I started up the first result, put the headphones on and leant back into the chair. Trying to forget all my worries and the anxiety for a while, that accompanied me since we decided to go on that trip, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the music.

A few minutes passed. Bloody hell. It wasn't working. I frowned. Why did my mind like to betray me so often? Why couldn't I just shut it off for once? But I knew something that would shut it up. I turned the chair and looked at...

Sam who was watching me. She sleepily waved at me with a dreamy smile.

I put the headphones down around my neck. "I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?"

"More or less... I think I sensed that you weren't lying next to me anymore. I'm developing a sixth sense, so that you can't sneak away." She gave me a tired grin.

I laughed once. "Wouldn't surprise me."

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"I was trying to relax because I couldn't sleep, like you told me. I tried listening to music and I... uh..." I remembered again why I'd noticed that she was awake: I'd turned the chair to face her.

"Yeah?" she prompted.

I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck and blushed slightly. "I was going to watch you sleep."

That sparked off another grin on her face. But just a moment later, it turned into a mischievous smile. "So, you want to watch me?" She slowly pulled her t-shirt up over her belly.

"Sam, please! That's _not_ relaxing."

"Well, I'm sure you'd be relaxed afterwards." Her smile did not falter.

"I'm sorry. I really just want to sleep," I pleaded.

She looked slightly disappointed for a moment, but then she sat up cross-legged against the wall, the bed was standing against, and patted the spot in front of her. Well, that music wasn't working, anyway. I closed my laptop, put the headphones on the table and sat down where she'd indicated.

"Don't resist," Sam whispered into my ear from behind and pulled my pyjama top up and over my head. It was quite cool in the room, so I grabbed the duvet and pulled it over my legs and up to my chin. I was really hoping that me sitting topless in front of her wasn't going to give her ideas again. But then she placed her warm, gentle hands on my back and started kneading the flesh between my shoulder blades with her thumbs.

"What's keeping you awake?" she asked in a calming voice.

"I'm still worried about our trip."

She rubbed her hands up and down my back with slow, strong movements. I sighed with pleasure. "Sweetie, it will be okay. We're going to visit a tourist attraction area and not some isolated island in the middle of storms."

She now pressed her fingertips into various spots on my back and moved them in small circles. It felt _so_ good.

"I just can't get it out of my head that something might happen," I told her. Concentrating on the massage, my voice was just a whisper now.

I groaned when she pressed both thumbs into a spot near a shoulder blade and slightly moved them around in union.

Sam kept quiet for the remainder of the massage. Once she was done, my back felt like pudding. Like a big, relaxed pudding. I just sat there, sighing peacefully, when Sam suddenly said "I should get a tattoo with your name."

It took a moment before I realized what she'd just said. "What?" I jolted up from my slumped position and turned around.

She lay down on her belly and pulled up her shirt a bit. "Lara," she said slowly as she drew a line over her lower back with a hand. "What do you think?" She grinned.

I was horrified. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I love you."

"I know that!"

"And I want to show it."

"You don't need to disfigure your body to do that!" I told her sternly.

"Look who's talking!" She fired back.

_Wow_. I gaped at her speechless.

Sam grinned victoriously at my reaction, turned around on her back, pulled up a sleeve and said sheepishly "Lara" again while pointing at her upper arm.

I held my hands up in protest. "Sam, please! That's not necessary. My name is _not_ something you want to have tattooed on you. That's just... tacky. You will regret that eventually."

"Lara," she repeated, pouting, while drawing a line over her belly.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You're messing with me, aren't you?" She just giggled in response and I had to groan. Fine. Two could play that game. I quickly snatched a sharpie from the desk, grabbed her arm and wrote 'property of Lara' over it. Sam squealed, trying to pull her arm out of my grip.

When I released her, she looked at what I'd done and started giggling nervously. "Oh, my god. Lara..."

"Are you happy now?" I asked with the best deadpan I could muster.

Sam looked at me for a moment and then burst out laughing. I had to smile despite myself.

I quickly put my pyjama top back on while Sam pulled herself together. She slipped her arms around my waist, put her head onto my shoulder and whispered "And what do you want to do with your property?"

I placed a kiss onto her forehead. "I'll think of something tomorrow. Or..." I glanced at the clock on my desk, grimacing. "Later today. Right now, I just-"

"Want to sleep." Sam finished the sentence for me. I nodded, sighing. Sam pulled me into a firm kiss, and I instantly relaxed into her arms. Lips still interlocked, she slowly laid us down. When she eventually broke the kiss, she put my head on her chest and slung one arm around it, stroking through my hair. Her other hand slipped under my top, slowly moving her fingertips over the skin of my waist and belly.

I felt so comfortable. It was so peaceful...

With only Sam and her soothing hands in my mind, I happily fell asleep, thinking how much I loved her.


	2. Midnight Snack

Beta read by TeenyTinyIrishPerson.

After a prompt from otpprompts on tumblr

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I woke up in the middle of the night. Or at least I thought it was somewhere in the middle of the night. The room was dimly lit in pale yellow by a mixture of light coming in from street lamps below and a bright moon standing high on the clear night sky. I took a deep breath inhaling cool winter air and pulled the blanket closer to me. It wasn't as warm in my bed as it should be. That's when I noticed that my favourite source of warmth was missing.

I rolled over and frowned at the empty space next to me. Curiosity about what Sam was doing eventually dragged me out of my bed; I wasn't handling uncertainty well anymore. Blanket wrapped around me, I waddled towards the door and carefully opened it. The living room was dark, but I noticed faint light coming from the kitchen and went to investigate.

The light was off; the only source of illumination was the opened fridge. Sam was slouching in front of it, scratching the back of her neck and making vague sounds of consideration. My eyes fell on two open yoghurt pots and an empty glass standing on the kitchen table. I sneaked up to Sam from behind and - without warning – quickly put my arms around her and said: "Good morning." Sam jumped and shrieked in shock. Solely the fact that I had my arms wrapped around her, pinning hers against her body, kept her from spreading half of our fridge's content in the kitchen.

"Shit, Lara, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she asked aloud a moment later after calming down a bit. She sounded grumpy.

"I- I'm sorry." I freed her from my squeeze and stepped back a bit. Sam sank down into a crouch and put her head into her hands taking audible breathes. "Are you okay?" I asked tentatively and carefully put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, everything is fucking rosy," she murmured; I didn't know what to say to that. Then Sam sighed and shrugged briefly. "Just a bit stressed because of the documentary. Actually, scratch 'a bit'."

"That's why the nightly comfort eating, I see."

"Nope, I just love eating in the dark so that I don't know what I chow; home-made surprise meal."

I watched her for a moment of deliberation. "Do you- Do you want to talk about it?"

"Please, God, no. Not now." She waved her hand dismissively at me.

Our door bell rang.

"What the..." Sam murmured and we looked at each other puzzled. I shrugged briefly and put the blanket around her shoulders.

"Well, if you keep going like that, you can add 'dress size' to your problems," I told her tauntingly pointing at the table and went to open the door. Something hit my back on the way out of the kitchen, and when I looked down it was one of the empty yoghurt pots.

I looked through the spyhole and blinked a few times at the light coming through. Our landlord who lived in the neighbouring flat was standing in the corridor in pyjamas and slippers, rubbing his weary eyes. I groaned audibly before reluctantly opening the door.

"Good morning, Mr. Spender." I tried to fake a smile.

He took a brief look at his watch and raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so," he said po-faced. "Is everything all right? I heard a scream."

"Yes, everything is fine. We're sorry for bothering you." I was about to close the door into his face when he put a hand against it.

"Are you sure? Where's your... room mate?" he asked in a weird tone and looked past me into our flat.

I rolled my eyes and slumped down a bit. Sam came scurrying over and nonchalantly wrapped her arms around me from behind. She pressed her cheek against mine and said faux-friendly: "Good mooorning, Mr. Spender. I'm fine. Thank you very much for your concern. If you don't mind, we would like to go back to bed now... together." She smooched my cheek, and when our neighbour removed his hand from the door in response and stepped back with a disgusted look, Sam gave the door a kick and it closed with a bang.

"Sam..." I said, half amused half accusing.

She just murmured a "meh" and buried her face in my neck. "We should invite Kaz back into our flat and have a stormy three-some until he throws us out."

"You wish..." I rolled my eyes.

"Not as much as Kaz. I'm pretty sure she has a crush on you." Sam gave my neck a quick kiss. "Can't you dip into your inheritance and we buy a nice house somewhere?" She took my ponytail and tickled my nose with it.

I sniffed because of the hair and pushed her hand away. "Can't you kill your father and dip into your inheritance?"

Sam snorted. "Yeah... But seriously. One day I'm gonna punch this nosy, homophobic prick of a landlord and then you can bail me out of jail."

"No way. I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet," I said exhaling soundly and stretched my arms.

Sam grunted and gave me a shove. She put her hands onto my waist and I instantly regretted once more the day she found out I was ticklish.

"Don't you dar-" She didn't let me finish and dug into my sides. The effect was immediate; I couldn't prevent myself from laughing loudly as I frantically tried to pull her arms away. I had no idea how she found this sudden burst of strength in situations like these.

"Sam!" I shrieked between laughters. "He's going to come back."

"He. Can. Watch." She said through clenched teeth and showed no mercy while I squirmed between her hands and laughed.

When I finally got a hold of her arms, I stepped away from her. I turned around and shook my finger at her while trying to catch my breath.

Sam grinned like a maniac and raised her arms, moving her fingers threateningly.

"Don't," I told her still smiling and backed away as she came closer. When she jumped at me, I dodged to the side and tried running away.

We made a few laps around the table in the living room giggling like little girls before she finally got a hold of my T-shirt and spun me around. Her hands were instantly back on my waist and she tickled me without pity. I burst out laughing and tried pulling away from her by jumping backwards. Sam's eyebrows shot up and she opened her mouth to say something but it was too late. I hit the couch, fell backwards and flipped over the backrest. Trying to hold onto something, I had grabbed Sam's arms and pulled her with me. I came to a halt hitting the floor behind the couch, legs stretched out up against its backside; Sam was hanging over the backrest, our hands still intertwined.

We stared at each other for a few seconds and then started laughing simultaneously. I gave her arms a forceful tug and she came sliding down, her head hitting my chest. Her position looked really uncomfortable, bent backwards against the couch like that.

"Oh my god," she said breathlessly. She tried to push herself up but I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pinned her against me.

"Lara!" She mumbled into my chest. When she gave up, she put her hands back to my sides and tickled me again.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I yield!" I removed my arms from around her, but Sam kept going. I was shaking under her and my stomach muscles started to ache from laughing. She only stopped when Mr. Spender started hammering against the wall.

I kept lying on the floor wheezing and panting while Sam tried to stand up from her awkward position. Her attempts looked so clumsy that I had to giggle between gasps. When she finally managed to stand, she gave me a quick shove with her foot. "Pff," she said with a faux-scowl but had to smirk despite herself.

"I can't believe I'm saying that but... Thank God for Mr. Spender. I think I was close to peeing over both of us," I told her and put an arm over my eyes.

Sam snorted and grabbed my hand to help me up. She pulled me into a hug and murmured: "We should go back to bed. It's like 4 AM or something."

"Agreed," I breathed. I made a quick pit-stop in the bathroom, and when I came back into my room, Sam was already lying in the bed. She smiled at me and held up the blanket - she must have retrieved from the kitchen – at one side. This looked so unbelievably inviting that I darted over to her and slipped into the bed within 2 seconds. We wound our arms around each other and rested our heads on our big pillow. We smiled at each other for a while and then simultaneously craned our necks to kiss. When our lips met, Sam wrapped her arms tighter around me and pulled me closer.

After our mouths parted a few minutes later, Sam relaxed back into the mattress and sighed contentedly. I nuzzled up against her and rested my head on her chest. Sam planted a kiss on top of my head while slowly stroking my back.

"I love you," I mumbled into her shirt.

"I know," she said with a grin and ruffled my hair.


	3. Sick

Many thanks to TeenyTinyIrishPerson for beta reading.

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We had gone mostly unscathed through the winter only for Sam to catch a nasty flu in early March. The full package: fever of 38.8°C, headache, sore throat, pain in the limbs, coughing, sneezing, her red nose a slimy waterfall.

I had asked her this morning if she wanted anything to keep her busy: her tablet, something to read, her phone... I even jokingly offered to carry the TV into her room. But she just grunted spiritlessly and shook her head, wincing and clutching her temple immediately after that movement. A heart-breaking contrast to her usual, joyful self. I couldn't leave her alone like this, so I'd taken a few days off from work. I'd made a trip to the chemist and supermarket with a stop at a book store when she'd taken a nap around midday.

I just entered her room with a glass of fruit juice for her when Sam blew her nose, opened the hanky and stared into it making a disgusted noise. Frowning, she whispered in a hoarse voice: "Who you gonna call?" Looking at the handkerchief-filled dustbin close by, she added: "I bet I can power Vigo up all by myself." Groaning, she threw the wadded tissue, but it missed the bin joining all the other hankies scattered on the floor.

As I put her drink on the night table, Sam lay back in her bed again and pulled the duvet up to her chin. I took a flannel out of a bucket with cool water, wrung it out a bit and ran it over her burning forehead. Leaning in, I gently pressed my lips on it while tenderly stroking her cheek. I had to smile into her skin when my endearments were rewarded with a happy sigh. I replaced the cloth onto her head before sitting down in a chair next to her bed. I picked up the book I'd brought from the night table and inspected it again, studying the cover and turning it around to read the text on the backside.

"Are you gonna teach me about the bathroom customs of servants in the Heian period now?"

"Good idea," I pointed out looking up from the book to see Sam giving me a worried glance. After a moment of deliberation, I stood up and Sam's gaze followed me as I rounded her bed to walk up to her computer. I booted it up, opened the browser and started some long mix of eerie music on Youtube on low volume. When I sat down again and opened the book, Sam's hand brushed my arm.

"Hey, Lara... Thank you, hon." She gave me a weak smile.

"Anytime, sweetie." I took her hand into mine and squeezed it gently.

Sam rolled onto the side to face me and closed her eyes when I playfully cleared my throat and began to read: "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon..."


	4. Bed and Book

Many thanks to TeenyTinyIrishPerson for fixing my mistakes.  
Based on a prompt from otpprompts on Tumblr.

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Enough for today. Tonight. Tomorrow. Whatever.

Sam slowly dragged herself from her own cave through the living room to Lara's. The path from door to door was pitch-black and far too long. Had it always been that long? Who the hell builds apartments this big in the middle of London? And what frigging time was it anyway? Sam glanced with half-closed eyes through the window somewhere to her left at the overcast night sky. Oh well. She shrugged mentally, unwilling to reproduce that movement physically. When she rubbed her eyes yawning, she suddenly felt herself move way faster than she should have been able to in her state- and also into the wrong direction. The next thing she knew, she lay sprawled out on the floor. Well, damn. That stupid carpet edge. One day she's going to chop it off. Though surely not now. For a while, Sam considered just closing her eyes and staying where she was; the carpet was kinda comfy after all, at least at that moment.

Hmm...

Her upper and lower eyelids were about to meet when she saw the glow coming from the crack beneath the door in front of her. With furrowed brow and bottom lip jutting out, she sighed. Sam willed herself to stand up again. With the help of the back of a chair she propped herself up on, she somehow managed to readopt an upright posture. Kind of upright. Hunched. She felt 20 years older. Was her back aching? A second passed and that question had already disintegrated in the vast emptiness in her mind. Forward. That was the only tangible thought that managed to manifest in that dead space. Her feet moved again. Step by step by step she slowly approached her destination. Yawning, she reached for the door handle, pressed it down and hauled herself in.

Sam leaned against the wall, blinking at the glaring floodlight of the lamp on the nightstand that was trying to burn the eyes out of her skull. Tears started welling up. A groan rumbled in her throat as she pressed her palms into her burning eye sockets and rubbed them slowly. Half a minute later, she dared to part her eyelids again.

Lara was lying in her bed, her head hidden behind some massive tome at least two forests must have been sacrificed for. A corner of Sam's mouth moved upwards when her brain registered that Lara wasn't occupying the entire bed; one side and half of her big, fluffy pillow were flirtingly glancing unused at Sam.

Lara stretched her legs out, which had just been in some awkward position as she turned over a page and raised an elbow, holding it there in place.

Sam's mouth curled into as much of a smile as she could unconsciously muster while her brows crept upwards, fighting against the counterweight of the bags under her eyes. She pushed herself off the wall and used the momentum to trudge over and flop onto the edge of the bed. Slipping under the duvet and Lara's raised elbow, Sam moved closer and snuggled up to Lara to rest her head onto Lara's chest. Putting an arm over Lara's middle and a leg between Lara's, they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. A happy sigh emerged from deep within Sam's chest.

Lara turned another page and lowered her arm onto Sam's body, perfecting their harmonious shape. She murmured a: "Hm."

Sam looked up. She tried to focus her eyes for a moment on the letter salad in Lara's hands. Her brain managed to make out a few words: Oktodad? Ogdad? Ogdoad, tooth- Thoth, Nefretmu... Nefertru... Nfrtrmu... Nefreksoqniopuaysdfez... Sam's eyes closed, her head sank into Lara's chest, her breathing slowed down.

Lara turned the page and gently ran the hand through Sam's hair before supporting the book with it again. She had to yawn as it became harder to concentrate. 15 minutes and 5 flipping of pages later, she put a small piece of paper she'd picked up between the pages and closed the book. Unable to put it on the nightstand without moving too much, she carefully dropped it on the floor. Turning back to Sam, she opened her mouth, but barely stopped any word from taking audible form when her eyes fell onto Sam. For a minute, she watched her, smiling, before turning off the light with an odd contortion of her free arm.

A whisper floated through the darkness: "Good night, sweetie."


End file.
